Marine Life in Danger Regardless of Global Warming

Al Gore touched on fisheries in his speech about global warming and implied that marine life was in danger due to global warming. New studies suggest that independent of global warming the carbon dioxide that is being absorbed from the atmosphere by the ocean is raising the acidity of the ocean. This is relevant because if the acidity raises too much it could pose a huge threat to shellfish. Their shells will literally disintegrate if the pH level gets too high. The pH level has been gradually rising but has begun to raise even more in the last 200 years. This article predicts that by the end of the century shellfish could be extinct if this pattern continues. This article can be found at science daily.com. It compares the disintegrating of the shells to chalk in vinegar. This is a scary thought because while it would not happen to us the same way, these creatures would literally just disintegrate. How can we let this happen. I found it interesting that Al Gore touched on fisheries but not so much on this because I think it is more attention grabbing to say that the fish could literally disintegrate. On the issue of fisheries I almost feel that it is selfish of people in developed countries to be buying fish and taking so much of the oceans supply when developing countries completely rely on fishing in some cases. Our demand is literally taking food out of starving peoples mouths when all we look at it as is another meal or a delicacy in some cases. This is a silly problem because it could be solved so easily with some regulation. I doubt that it will ever be completely regulated because the sad truth is that people can be truly greedy and just want to get as much as they can for themselves.